Rotarians in Kane County embrace local need, sort 705 winter coats
Thirty-four boxes containing 705 winter coats were stacked in Tassi Brautigam’s basement in Campton Hills, ready to be opened so they could be tagged, sorted and given to local schools, the Tri-City Salvation Army and Lazarus House, a homeless shelter in St. Charles.
They call it Koats for Kids.
On Tuesday morning, about a dozen members of the Batavia Rotary and the St. Charles Breakfast Rotary began tearing open the boxes and sorting the coats — by color and size and according to the school or nonprofit that requested their help.
“This is our 14th year,” Brautigam said. “When it first started, it was the Salvation Army that needed coats.
“That first year, we gave away 85 coats, and we thought we were doing great,” she added. “Last year was our biggest year, 752 coats.”
Michele Kinzler of St. Charles and Dave Brown of Batavia worked together to sort out the boy colors from the girl colors into neat piles.
Sky blue, royal blue, gray, teal and black for boys. Dark pink, medium pink, bright pink, red and purple-pink for girls.
Also sorting coats were Sue Peterson of St. Charles, Karen Clutter and Chuck Miles of Geneva, Barbara Roos of North Aurora, and Batavia residents Margaret Blighton, Tom Von Lunen and Marge Brown.
Brautigam showed a list from a St. Charles school listing coats, sizes and genders.
“We have no idea who the people are. They (the coats) are just tagged or with a first name,” Brautigam said.
“The school districts send in their requests,” she said. “I look at those requests and order boxes of coats.”
Brautigam said they purchase some of the coats — toddler sizes and XXL sizes — at Costco.
The coats, which cost $17,000, and were donated anonymously through Rotary members, Brautigam said. FedEx pays for the shipping costs to send the coats.
The Rotarians also saved all the plastic bags the coats came in to be recycled with the St. Charles Kiwanis, another service club. The Kiwanis gives the plastic to TREX Plastic Recycling, which recycles the plastic into boards for benches, she said.